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I recently read this wonderful passage in John Hyman’s book Action, Knowledge and Will (pp. 18-19) where he underscores the difference between something’s being voluntary / involuntary as compared with its being intentional / unintentional: If we are using the word ‘voluntary’ as it is normally used (and how else are we supposed to use … Continue reading »

Ray Monk, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton, summarises the environmal argument for veganism in this recent-ish article for the New Statesman (Nov 2017). A very clear summary of much of the recent evidence on the topic.

[ This is a summary of ‘Abilities to do otherwise’, the topic of which I have recently been working on again. ] Abilities not defined solely by stimulus and manifestation The first point I argue for (section 2) is that intrinsic dispositions and abilities are not to be defined solely in terms of stimulus conditions … Continue reading »

Here is a YouTube video of a talk on Frankfurt-style cases and robust alternative possibilities that I gave back in 2014 at a summer school, hosted by the Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies. They have a ton of great talks available on their YouTube channel. Some of the background for the ideas I discuss in … Continue reading »

This is an audio recording of a talk I’ve given in a couple of places. The title is ‘Grace, free will and necessity in Aquinas’, and it looks at the question of whether a person can deserve praise or blame for something willed necessarily. I look first of all at what Aquinas says about this, … Continue reading »

Just posted this to philos-l about a summer school and conference in Analytic Theology we’re having here at Innsbruck next year: The Nature of God: Personal and a-personal concepts of the divine Summer School: July 26 – August 4, 2018 (Call for participants) Conference: August 6, 2014 – August 8, 2018 (Call for speakers) In … Continue reading »

Back in April of last year I was asked whether I might be interested in contributing to an issue of Roczniki Filozoficzne, a philosophy journal published by the Catholic University of Lublin. I was keen to submit something on the topic of divine freedom and the following article is the result. The brief was for … Continue reading »

Where St Augustine had made man into a mere thing, Pelagius in restoring man, was on the way to making a mere thing of God. St Augustine had been right to ascribe the credit not to himself but to God, wrong to seem to say that he himself had had no say in whether he would … Continue reading »

Veganuary EDIT: This post was updated Jan 10 to reflect further research into the issue; I would like to thank Jeff Anhang for pointing me in the direction of various pertinent resources. This January I’m participating in Veganuary, a “give veganism a go in January” campaign co-founded by Matthew Glover and Jane Land. Before writing … Continue reading »

The freedom of the will is so far from being, as it is generally considered, a controvertible question of philosophy, that it is the fundamental postulate without which all action and all speculation, philosophy in all its branches, and human consciousness itself, would be impossible.